RICHMOND, Ind. — One of the four unions that represents city employees has overwhelmingly rejected the city's latest contract offer, leading Mayor Dave Snow to call for a fact-finding panel to help resolve the situation.

Snow gave an update on the contract negotiations to Richmond Common Council members Tuesday as he asked them to approve two potential appointees for the panel.

According to the mayor, city officials and leaders of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees reached a tentative agreement on a contract for this year back in August.

The process then was held up as the city worked to get a health insurance plan in place for 2018.

"AFSCME had requested to wait until insurance numbers were released to ensure that the AFSCME employees' contracted amount would remain under 20 percent of the total premium cost, and we did do that and kept that at 17 percent," Snow said.

Final negotiations, however, stalled before union members finally took a vote on the proposed deal earlier this month. They turned it down by a count of 56-5.

"That leaves us as an administration really at a fork in the road where we could either choose to consider that a close of that negotiation process and only entertain going back to the table to negotiate 2019 or, as I feel is much more appropriate, open up a fact-finding panel so that we can take this as a learning and a listening opportunity," Snow said.

The proposed agreement included a pay raise as well as increases in longevity pay and clothing allowance, but Snow declined to go into further detail about the amounts of the offered hikes as well as what the sticking points were in the negotiations.

"I don't want to dive into any more details because I don't want to taint the fact-finding process that this independent panel will go through," he said.

"I want them to do the due process, to do the fact-finding and put the pieces together without influencing them in any way."

City officials formally asked for the fact-finding panel last week, and AFSCME leadership has until March 1 to act on the request.

Common Council members on Tuesday voted to approve the mayor's potential appointees to what would be a five-person panel: Bob Reynolds of the accounting firm Brady Ware and former Wayne County auditor Bob Coddington.

AFSCME also would appoint two people to the fact-finding panel. Those four then would choose a fifth person to serve as the group's chair.

The panel would be able to review any relevant documents and interview any necessary officials before issuing a report that then would be used for a final round of negotiations between the city and the union, according to city code.

If that doesn't lead to an agreement, the fact-finding panel's recommendations then would go to Richmond Common Council for possible approval. If council declines, the process would repeat until council finally finds a deal to its liking, according to city ordinance.

"I want to make sure that we're taking this as a listening and learning opportunity," Snow said. "If there was something that we missed at the table that we are not adequately listening and negotiating in good faith, then I want to be made aware of that by this independent panel."

The other three unions representing city employees including police officers, firefighters and transit workers all agreed to new contracts last year.

Jason Truitt is the team leader and senior reporter at the Palladium-Item. Contact him at (765) 973-4459 or jtruitt@pal-item.com.